A Day Hasn't Passed
by Rezelle
Summary: Sesshomaru abandoned Rin, and she's retaken her vow of silence in mourning, feeling betrayed and unloved. Will he return for her someday? Oneshot, SessxRin.


**Summary: **Sesshomaru abandoned Rin, and she's retaken her vow of silence in mourning, feeling betrayed and unloved. Will he return for her someday? One-shot, SessxRin.

**Disclaimer: **I'm obviously not Rumiko Takahashi, or Sunrise for that matter; I don't own InuYasha. If I did, KIKYO WOULD BE IN DEAD. PERMANENTLY.

**Notes: **Ah, one-shots. This is what I do when my insomnia takes over and I don't feel like working on the "main" project. I write forty one-shots and never get around to finishing anything important.

_A Day Hasn't Passed_

_I just don't understand. Why are you doing this to me?_

Rin stared at her dirt-encrusted feet, callused from lack of shoes all eight years of her life. The darkness of trees surrounded her, voices echoing from far-off as they sat around a campfire and rejoiced over the defeat of the demon Naraku. Normally, the tall white figure before her provided comfort and security in the darkness.

However, now he only made her shiver.

"Do you understand?" he asked, toneless and cold as always. He had just asked her to do that which she could not imagine. Her mind barely comprehended his words, as it was spinning; how could he do this to her?

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru. I... understand."

Silence followed, awkward and full of things she wished to say. She wished to yell, to cry, to laugh as if this were some cruel joke. However, each of these led to the desire for him to hold her, like a parent, a father . . .

A lover.

_Yet, _she told herself, _what do I know about love?_

She kept her head bent as Sesshomaru strode past her, deeper into the dark trees, followed by the little impish demon. She envied Jaken in that moment, longed for his closeness to _him,_ pleaded with whatever god might be listening to let her stay by his side.

_This isn't happening . . . This is just a nightmare._

Once she sensed that Sesshomaru and Jaken were gone, she turned and left the small clearing where they had stood, picking her way around the trees back to the group of people celebrating. She didn't understand what danger she could possibly be in if Naraku was indeed gone forever.

Why would he make her stay with them?

"Rin," Kagome called to her as she exited the forest and slumped to the ground. "What's the matter?"

She shook her head slowly, glaring at the ground as if it were the cause of her pain and clutched a blanket to her chest. It was soft, unlike anything she'd ever touched. Absentmindedly, she caressed it in her fingertips while Kagome approached her with caution.

"Are you okay?"

Just as she used to before having met Sesshomaru, she kept silent, stroking the blanket and shutting her eyes to keep hot tears from flowing. _Tears . . . _She hadn't cried since the day her parents died. Yet she'd had so much reason to, considering the other villagers had been terrible to her.

All of her memories flooded back into her mind, the pain of a thousand stones striking her body magnified at once, until she could no longer hold it back.

"Lord Sesshomaru, how could you do this to me?"

Rocking back and forth, she let her tears stream down either cheek, hands wrapped around her knees.

_Stay with them,_ he told her. _Do not look for me._

_Do you understand?_

"I don't! I don't understand!"

Kagome kneeled next to her, apprehensive about comforting the young girl. Sango came to her side, whispering soothing words to Rin and daring to place a hand on her shoulder. Rin didn't brush it away, however much she wanted to, allowing them to console her in their own way.

However, they were not Sesshomaru.

For so many years, as she obeyed her lord and stayed with them, the thought always sprang forth in her mind. They were not Sesshomaru. He had abandoned her, instructed her not to look for him, and then taken Jaken and left so suddenly that she hadn't even enough time to realize what he had said.

As six years passed, and she grew into a young woman, she held the bitter taste of his name on her tongue every day he was gone. Rin kept her silence during those days, as words had brought her pain and so struck her soul each time she woke up knowing he was far away.

The others did not leave her, but instead took care of her, fed her strange-- yet delicious-- things, spoke to her every day. They tried to heal her heart, yet no one was capable of doing so. Soon, she convinced herself that this Sesshomaru was only a dream, one she had finally woken from, and moved on with her life as a mute mourning the death of her parents. Mourning the death of the only good portion of her life.

Days slipped by her, all blurred together, each the same. She easily settled back into village life, unknowing as she transformed into a beautiful young woman with the passing days. Oblivious to the men who stared as she brought a bucket to the well each morning, she longed for the life she once had.

"Rin? Where are you?" Kagome called, knowing she would not answer.

The older woman came to her side, balancing a child on her hip with, strangely enough, black hair and pointed dog ears. The small child's curious eyes rested on Rin, eyeing the bucket as it swayed back and forth with her movements.

"You've grown so much," Kagome said, scanning Rin with a distant expression. "You're sixteen now, aren't you?"

Rin nodded in reply.

"In my era, you're still just a teenager. But here, you're old enough to be married." She sighed thoughtfully, thinking of her own husband. "It's so strange, to imagine being married at your age."

Rin only shrugged, lowering her bucket into the well before them with a long rope, careful not to let her fingers slip. Once she felt the wooden pail hit the surface of the water, she loosened her hold and allowed the bucket to tip over. Water spilled inside its confines, until it was full, and she pulled it out once more.

"Rin . . . I shouldn't ask this . . . do you think about _him_?"

She froze, fingers closed over the handle of the bucket. A light autumn breeze fluttered through her long black hair as she stood before Kagome, head bowed, clutching the bucket so tightly her knuckles turned white. Finally, she shook her head and hurried away.

_There isn't a day I don't think about him . . . Milord, Sesshomaru._

Once she'd returned the water to Kaede, Rin ventured beyond the borders of the village to the forest, breaking into a run. Tree branches slapped at her face, and she held her arms protectively over her bent head as she picked up speed. Her bare feet, almost unfeeling to the harsh ground below her, carried her to the large clearing and the Bone Eater's Well. She collapsed to the ground, panting.

A single tear escaped her, along with the first words she had spoken in years.

"Sesshomaru, why did you do this to me?"

The sound of her own voice almost startled her, cracked from years without use. She swallowed a lump in her throat, drying her eyes with the sleeve of her kimono and pulling herself to her feet.

"Because I love you."

Surprised at the strange yet familiar voice, Rin jerked around to see a tall man clad in armor and white kimono with long silvery hair. The breeze sifted through his shiny strands, the midday sunlight glistening off them beautifully.

"You what?" was all she managed, frozen in shock.

He took a step toward her, guardedly, as if unsure of how she might react. "Rin . . . you were too young. It was dangerous for you to be with me even as long as you were."

She stood her ground as he approached her, holding her gaze with his softened yellow eyes.

"You've grown up . . . Do you understand I've waited all this time for you to get older?"

"Why?" she trembled as he grew closer, holding his hand out for her to take.

"I waited for you to realize . . . "

"That I love you? I've always loved you, Sesshomaru. Just in different ways."

She accepted his outstretched hand, taking it in her own and letting him pull her against him. That same hand gently stroked her long black hair, the way she had the blanket the night he left.

"What way do you feel now?" he whispered anxiously, a tone she had never heard from the proud demon.

"I..." her voice faltered as she buried her head in his chest, breathing in his scent that she had missed so much for so long.

"Would you agree to staying with me? Until your mortality separates us . . . "

"I would," she answered.

He gently brushed her lips, and she returned his gesture, unaware of the world around her, realizing again that Sesshomaru was the only one who had ever cured her of her muteness. The only one besides her parents to ever make her feel loved.

"A day hasn't passed that I didn't think of you. Sesshomaru."


End file.
